David Witter

Hallowscene 2005
Newcity's list of spookiness

On November 28, 2000, a man walking his dog in Beaubien Woods pulled hard on the leash as his pet buried his nose in a patch of loose dirt. Glancing at the ground, he noticed why. It was unusual, but not unlikely, to find animal bones lying in the Cook County Forest Preserves, especially with the recent onset of cold weather. But as he looked closer, he noticed that the object lying in the dirt did not belong to a raccoon, bird or even a deer. It was a human skull.

A day later, Chicago Police and FBI agents leading a team of search dogs found a rib cage, pelvis and two thigh bones in the same area. Tests and dental records later revealed that the remains belonged to Traci Todd, a flight attendant who had been missing since September 12 of that year.

This is not the only case of corpses being found by hikers enjoying the Cook Country Forest Preserves. On May 8, 2005, the bodies of Krystal Tobias, 9, and Laura Hobbs, 8, were found face up in the Beulah Park Woods, near Zion. A short time later it was determined that they had been brutally murdered. The most famous murder case involving the Forest Preserves occurred in 1955, when the naked, mangled remains of 13-year-old John and 11-year-old Anton Schuessler were found at the entrance of Robinson Woods, near Lawrence and River Road. The discovery sent shock waves throughout the Northwest Side of Chicago.

Covering 68,000 acres, the Cook County Forest Preserves occupy an estimated ten percent of the landmass of the county. Founded in 1914, they owe their existence to naturalists and city planners such as Daniel Burnham and Jens Jensen who envisioned an "emerald ring" around Cook County. Today, the Forest Preserves feature an amazing variety of wildlife including deer, coyote, herons, beaver, egrets and fox living in habitats that include woodland, prairie, swamp and wetlands. Dark, silent and surrounding an urban area with one of the highest crime rates in the nation, the Forest Preserves suffer surprisingly few instances of gang activity, felonies or dangerous crimes. Yet they have been known to be a convenient area to bury or hide bodies from nearby murders. They also provide cover for other illicit activities, including poachers, as well as members of Satanic sects, Santeria and other groups who perform cult-like rituals in the woods.

Whether it is for sustenance or just out of boredom, poachers with firearms enter the forest preserves during all seasons to hunt and kill animals. Although regulated hunters follow some rules of humaneness, killing after the mating season and hunting adult males, poachers will shoot nursing mothers, babies, fawns and other animals that are usually confined in a small area surrounded by highways, with no chance for escape.

"People poach in the woods every year," Chris Anchor, a biologist who works for the Forest Preserve District says. "In the field, I find things like blood, shotgun shells and traps. Another problem we have is that local townships outside of Chicago use the preserves as an area to dump piles of animal carcasses, usually killed by automobiles, in the woods."

At twilight, or around Halloween, hikers and dog walkers often spot groups of people dressed in black, carrying carved staffs and candles and wearing robes and tall hats, marching into secluded areas. Like the homeless who sometimes set up makeshift shacks in the woods, these people are usually harmless. During the height of the Blair Witch phenomenon, it was not uncommon to spot fire pits with burnt wax, plastic skulls, octagons drawn into the dirt, and other signs of what could usually be ascribed to adventurous teenagers or slightly demented adults recreating their favorite horror-movie images.

"I remember there was an area in Arlington Heights about 200 yards from the entrance of the woods," Thompson says. "Someone or a group of people had built a series of small, manmade hills, big enough to ride a bike over, surrounded by teepees. All of them were organized in odd, concentric shapes."

But occasional remains of chickens, cats and other sacrificed animals indicate that with the right mix of imagery and alcohol, the practice of cult-like rituals in the Forest Preserves can become serious. "Every few years you run into something that indicates people were practicing this type of activity," Anchor says.

The center for these rituals is undoubtedly the Bachelors Grove Cemetery, located just off 147th Street near Central Avenue, in the Rubio Woods Forest Preserve. Exiting the parking lot on the north side of 147th Street, the now-abandoned cemetery can only be accessed by walking down a remote, thickly wooded path, a half-mile or so away from the parking lot. Coming to a rise you see an opened chain-link and barbed-wire fence that surrounds the burial ground. Inside, the tombstones and grave markers have been desecrated, vandalized and knocked over like dominos. Originally called Everdons Cemetery, the area gained the nickname of Bachelors Grove due to the large number of unmarried male immigrants who were placed in what amounted to a pauper's grave while digging the Illinois-Michigan Sanitary Canal. Other local legends tell of people seeing ghosts of farmers pulling plows, disappearing farmhouses, monks dressed in robes and apparitions of gangsters who were said to be dumped in the nearby lagoon. There is even an infrared picture of what is supposedly a female ghost seated on a tombstone. The legend of "one of the most haunted places in the world" draws hundreds of visitors a week. Some are curiosity seekers who come to take pictures, hoping to find the negative image of a ghost. Yet the desecrated tombs, dozens of empty alcohol bottles, used condoms and condom wrappers discarded amongst the graves indicate that, whether true or not, the mere lore of the ghosts and apparitions brings out the worst after dark. Although heavily patrolled by Forest Preserve and local police, one local teen warned, "You better not go in there at night. That is where the meth heads hang out. They'll do whatever. They don't give a shit."

Despite the occasional human skulls or bodies, the occasional poaching and odd ritualistic activity, there are actually few recorded felonies within the Forest Preserve system. Statistics provided by the Forest Preserve District for the year 2004 indicate that there were 3,025 ordinance violations within the preserves. Most of them were for minor violations, including 1,399 citations for hours of operation, 200 for glass bottles, 45 for drunkenness, 77 for driving on paths in woodlands and prohibited snowmobiling and horseback riding. Six percent of the violations involved criminal charges. Some of the more serious instances include 52 arrests for indecent exposure, 141 for disorderly conduct, 18 for possession of firearms/concealed weapons, 8 for erection and ownership of structures and 29 for illegal hunting. There are probably many acts that go unseen or unreported, but the statistics list no instances of robbery or rape. Although there is graffiti throughout the preserves, it lacks many of the telltale symbols of hardcore gang activity.

In another good sign for law enforcement in the forest preserves, the three most famous crimes--the Todd body, the murders of Tobias and Hobbs, and the Schuessler murders--have all been solved. In the case of Todd, police arrested and charged the flight attendant's former boyfriend, who had allegedly murdered Todd and dismembered the body in his apartment before dumping it into Beaubein Woods. The case of Tobias and Hobbs became an even greater tragedy when Hobbs' own father admitted to killing both girls. Jerry Hobbs, a former convict, told police on May 11, 2005 that he beat both girls to death in a fit of rage over the fact that his daughter had stolen $40 from her mother's purse.

The Schuessler case was finally solved in 1995, forty years after the fact. In a bizarre turn of events, an informant in the murder case of candy heiress Helen Brach also disclosed that the Schuessler boys had been killed by Kenneth Hansen. A sexual predator, Hansen worked for Silas Jayne, a wealthy stable owner with reputed mob ties. Hansen allegedly lured the boys into the woods with the promise that they could ride the prize horses that were kept at the stables that were only a short distance from Robinson's Woods. Hansen admitted to the crimes and is currently serving a 200-year sentence.

As the leaves continue to turn to their beautiful colors and begin to fall from the trees, the minds of many will turn to walks and outings in the Cook County Forest Preserves. For Halloween revelers and the visitors to secluded areas like Bachelors Grove, these activities will center around tales of hidden bodies, ghosts and the celebration of autumn. Yet when it comes to tales about murder and mayhem, visitors to the woods have to look no further than the trees around them.

(2005-10-25)

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